by Bob Markowitz, BlueFinity International
Digital transformation can be compared to modernising an old house. You can paint the exterior of a 50-year-old house and paint the rooms in the house. To bring it up to current specifications, you should probably replace the plumbing and wiring too! But you don’t need to do it all at once and, creating a plan for the future would be a better approach. The plan should take into consideration who will live in that house. You may also need to add some new stuff like an outside connection for TV services and broadband. oh… and how about making it fibre optic while you’re at it?
But let’s get back to software. Much of today’s software (MultiValue in particular) was originally written to give management team lots of information about their business. It was also written to give customers information about their accounts (invoices, statements through the post), maybe even to supply them with catalogues and to give production people instructions about what to make and how much stuff they have to hand. Mostly, everything was written to be used inhouse. Then came the web. Customers could look at their accounts online instead of checking paper reports (invoices, statements, catalogues). Outside sales reps could see what inventory was available, what their customers bought, etc. immediately.
Today’s enterprise software is more customer driven. Customers want their information to be available on the most accessible devices. They want to look at it on the same device they use for playing games and getting their driving directions. The customer wants an app that is easy to use. If it is too complicated, they will just get their stuff from the next software provider. Most relationships in business are no longer like the ones that Willy Loman[i] developed. The same goes for keeping employees happy AND more productive.
Companies want to invest in a technology that does not lock them in, that allows for change, that “future proofs” their business. They want to be agile. They want the software to be able to accommodate the customers’ needs, not only by UI/UX changes, but changes the internal software as well.
Digital transformation is all that and more. It requires great team development and cooperation. Soon in larger organisations there will no longer be code writers sitting in a corner. I have seen studies that say approximately 70% of the Fortune 1,000 companies are using low-code or planning to use a low-code app development platform soon. And low-code platforms will not take away creativity from coders; it will make them more productive, more responsive and smarter.
Advertisement time – there is only one product in MultiValue that provides low-code development and that is Evoke from BlueFinity.
Programming methodology is
changing for the better. Costs for
software development will no longer be in the creation of apps but in the use
of them. And the good news is the costs
will be much less. Shut the salesman up!
[i] William “Willy” Loman is a fictional character and the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s classic play Death of a Salesman